Lungensonographie in der kardiologischen Intensiv- und Notfallmedizin (Teil 1): Einführung, Grundlagen, Indikationen und Stellenwert bei Herzinsuffizienz

In recent years lung ultrasound (LUS) has established itself as an evidence-based examination method in cardiological intensive care and emergency medicine; its mastery is given as a prerequisite in a position paper by the DGIIN, DEGUM and DGK. In contrast to conventional sonography, LUS is primarily based on the assessment of specific artefacts, a morphologically and anatomically correct organ visualization is only possible in the case of pathologically altered consolidated lungs. As a rapidly applicable point of care diagnostic technique, LUS is well-suited for the leading symptom dyspnea. The correlation of LUS findings with the pulmonary fluid content and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure allows for a timely non-invasive estimate and thus the collection of often therapy-determining findings for the treatment of critically ill patients. Despite a multitude of described methods to quantify pulmonary fluid overload using LUS, there is currently no consensus on the most suitable method and therefore no standardization.